Free Narrative Research Articles

Psychoanalytically informed research interviewing: notes on the free association narrative interview method.

Following the development of the transdisciplinary field of British psychosocial studies, interest in the application of insights from psychoanalysis in qualitative research has grown in recent years among researchers in nursing and allied disciplines. To address a paucity of attention to - and lack of clarity concerning - the implications of methodological developments and debate around the application of psychoanalytic perspectives and techniques in research, specifically the theory and practice of research interviewing as a psychoanalytically informed endeavour. This paper draws from the author's doctoral research to provide a critical account of Hollway and Jefferson's ( 2000 , 2013 ) free association narrative interview method (FANIM). It describes FANIM's core elements and then moves on to consider its use by nursing and applied health and social care researchers, and then to criticism that has been levelled against Hollway and Jefferson's work regarding it. FANIM provides valuable ideas about how to approach nursing research in a way inspired by psychoanalytic principles, but requires further evaluation by nursing researchers. Nurse researchers may take inspiration from particular aspects of FANIM. They should also reflect on whether they are mislabelling their approach as 'psychoanalytic' or 'psychoanalytically informed', if they only partly apply it.

Nomınal and Verbal Predıcate Use in Schızophrenıa

Objective. Schizophrenia’s first characteristics invokes the notion of disordered thought and language. Accordingly one of several diagnostic characteristics of schizophrenia is an impairment of verbal communication. To determine the detailed nature of language impairments taking into consideration these problems the aim of the present study was to analyze nominal and verbal predicate use produced by schizophrenic patients and control group during their speech as both predicates require different processings.
 Materials & Methods. Fifty patients with schizophrenia diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria were included into the study and compared to fifty healthy subjects matched for age, sex and education level with the patients participated in the study. The subjects’ speech was evaluated by using picture description test, picture story telling test, subject-based narration test and free verbal narration test. The data consisted of 8–10 minute recorded interviews. The recordings were transcribed based on Du Bois’ Discourse Transcription Symbols and analyzed statistically and linguistically.
 Results. The results showed that the number of nominal and verbal predicates used by the patients with schizophrenia differed from the control group. Schizophrenia patients preferred nominal predicates more than control group in all tests. However, control group used significantly more verbal predicates in all tests.
 Conclusions. In this study it was hypothesized that language used by the patients with schizophrenia plays a central role in the this disease than commonly supposed and the phenomena of schizophrenic language can be regarded as reflections of a more basic disturbance of thought. At the end of the study based on this hypothesis patients were concluded to have simplified speech in addition to the disorganized speech defined in the field. The reason for this simplification is thought to be because of the predicate processing in the brain. The complement of a verb is always a noun phrase, which can be simple or complex, the patients tended to use nominal predicates more as it did not require any constituents and thus they simlified their speech because of their language and thought disorders.

Cuautla 931

The present article sheds light on religious orientations inside an upper-middle-class Catholic family in Mexico City’s Hipódromo-Condesa neighborhood. The outcome of ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, the data is presented in the form of a free narrative that reveals three different orientations: conservative Catholicism; the search for new experiences within the ecclesiastic institution; and generational inflection as influenced by social surroundings, all centered on a dynamic Catholic culture that interacts with the global church’s major trends as well as with increasing religious diversity in urban centers.

Encapsulated Sadness: Iranian Migrants and Exiles in London

This paper is about the experiences of migration of middle class Iranians living in London, with focus on the psychosocial experiences of one woman. Her story is representative of the stories of Iranians who ‘make it’ in exile. There is scant study of the lives of middle class Iranian migrants; I carried out research to contribute to the wider literature on migration and to address this gap. The paper is based on the empirical findings of a PhD study which drew on two strands of psychosocial methodology, BNIM (biographical narrative interview method) and FANI (free association narrative interview) to collect data. Ten Iranian men and women living in London were selected through ‘purposive sampling’ and a ‘snowballing process’ and each individual was interviewed twice. Examination of the data draws on psychoanalytic, sociological and psychosocial theories to gain insight into experiences of loss and the relationship between loss and sadness expressed in their stories. Common to all of the interviewees was a core sense of loss. This was mostly linked to losses of work, professional status, family attachments and complexities of cultural belonging and dislocation. The findings suggest that this sadness is of an encapsulated nature that cannot be worked through.

Written text production and its relationship to writing processes and spelling ability in persons with post-stroke aphasia

ABSTRACT Background: Writing ability is of increasing importance in our computerised societies, yet research into functional text writing in persons with aphasia (PWA) remains scarce. Knowledge is limited of how different aspects of the writing process interact during writing. Spelling ability has commonly been investigated using dictation tests, but it is not known to what extent those results relate to spelling or editing in text writing. Aims: To compare text writing in the production of narrative texts in persons with and without aphasia and to interrelate measures from the narrative output. Furthermore, to investigate how performance in dictation tasks related to spelling and editing in text. Methods & Procedures: Fifteen participants with mild to moderate aphasia and 26 participants without aphasia in a reference group wrote two types of narratives in a keystroke-logging program and were tested with dictation tests. Writing process measures and characteristics from the texts were compared between groups. Writing process measures were interrelated for both groups. Spelling test results were correlated to spelling and editing in text for the group with aphasia. Outcomes & Results: Significant differences between the two groups were found on all writing process measures; the PWA typed more slowly in the copytask, produced fewer words per minute and deleted a larger proportion of their texts while editing in two narrative tasks. There were also significant differences in text length and the amount of spelling errors in the picture-elicited narrative – but not in the free narrative. There were significant correlations between productivity and editing in both narrative tasks for the group with aphasia, but no such relation was found for the reference group, showing that for the PWA their productivity in text writing aligned with the amount of editing undertaken. A strong correlation between scores on the real-word dictation task and the amount of spelling errors in a picture-elicited text was found, but no correlation was found between scores on the real-word dictation task and spelling errors in the free narrative. Conclusion: All aspects of productivity in text writing were affected in this group of participants with mild to moderate aphasia. There was a relation between editing and production rate for the persons with aphasia, but not for the reference group. Scores on real-word spelling tests cannot predict spelling in free texts for PWA. Editing of writing is time-consuming and problematic for PWA and is worthy of specific focus within assessment and therapy for writing difficulty.

Free association narrative interviewing, trauma and the youth justice professional

Free association narrative interviewing, trauma and the youth justice professional

Особенности мышления у детей с аутизмом без умственной отсталости

22 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 26 neurotypic children from 7 to 10 years old took part in the study of cognitive features of autistic children without intellectual disabilities. Instruments aimed at studying of cognitive functions in primary school children and free form narrative used in the research. Found that in children with ASD, some cognitive features significantly more pronounced than in neurotypical peers: lack of targeting, diverseness of thinking with a distortion of the generalization process, concreteness of thinking. The scores obtained in children with ASD were mainly within the mean values, while in the group of neurotypic children, for the most part, they were within high values. Revealed that children with ASD more often than neurotypic peers demonstrate a combination of specific thinking and some features that considered as characteristic of a schizophrenic pathopsychological complex of symptoms.

Adults Impact on the Reliability and Suggestibility of Children’s Eyewitness Testimony

The aim of the study was to determine the influence of authority on the susceptibility of child witnesses and the reliability of their testimonies. This study, consisting of experimental and control groups, included 20 girls and 20 boys, totalling 40 children. It took place in two phases; an initial phase (“eyewitness”, “post-event interview”) and, one week later, a final phase (“recall”). In the individual interviews held with the children, a questionnaire consisting of a free narrative question and 18 open-ended questions was used. The free narrative question asked the children to specify the details they remembered about the animated film. The open-ended questions focused on the events and characters in the film. However, 12 of the open-ended questions could be answered correctly since they were about characters and situations in the film that the children had watched, while six of the questions were trick questions that were about characters and situations that were not shown in the film. For data analysis, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to reach the deeper level of perception and memories that children shared about the film. In conclusion, after analysis, it was found that even when the interview takes place immediately after the event, children are significantly affected by the misinformation given by an adult and their knowledge on the event in question is shaped according to this misinformation. It was observed that children create "a new event" based on the information they receive from an adult.
 Key words: Child, Eyewitness testimony, Reliability, Suggestibility, Suggestive interview, Memory.

Trapped in discourse? Obstacles to meaningful social work education, research, and practice within the neoliberal university

ABSTRACT This article appraises the role of the neoliberal university in regulating social work education, research, and practice. The dominance of governments and employers in determining social work education is highlighted, alongside the ascendancy of skills-based and vocational training. Moreover, it is proposed that research, associated learning, and practice are now more often molded around essentialist science-based, behavioral or functionalist paradigms, which fit conveniently with free market, politically conservative, and authoritarian agendas. The neoliberal university is increasingly able to rationally prepare social workers to fulfill narrow ideological objectives, which includes priority given to attempts to empower, pathologize, and scientifically manage structurally disadvantaged populations from minority groups. Reductive and positivist paradigms, nevertheless, can struggle to cope with social fragmentation and diversity, with social work students often ill-prepared for many of the complex and poorly funded challenges which they later face as qualified practitioners. Analysis for the article draws from critical theory, and it is concluded that market-based discourses and related professional paradigms—and the symbolically constituted and hyperreal fantasies which they help to maintain—can prove difficult to escape. Social work continues to face a precarious future within university settings in which free market narratives, associated norms, targets, and labor insecurity prevail.

Discoursal power and multi-objective forestry in the Finnish print media

Finnish forest policy has turned into the paradigm of (participatory) multi-objective forestry during the last decades. In this paper, we identify different types of discoursal power in the Finnish print media and analyse how – and with what kind of consequences – these types of power are associated with the present paradigm. The data consist of randomly selected print media articles (n = 164) on forest issues from three case years (1977, 1997, 2017). The mixed method analysis combines qualitative content analysis with multivariate methods.Two types of hegemony and three types of subordination were identified in the analysis. Single-objective hegemony (1) manifested itself in a conflict free narration that operated within one’s own single objective for forest use. In multi-objective hegemony (2), there were several objectives in a beautiful harmony. Deeply subordinate (3) narration emphasised fundamental conflicts between the objectives, whereas optimistic subordination (4) emphasised good co-operation as a solution for all problems. Mild subordination (5) was expressed when the objectives were mutually harmonious but there was a conflict between the means to achieve them. The paradigm of multi-objective forestry was essentially built on multi-objective hegemonic and mildly subordinate narrations.The types of discoursal power associated with the paradigm of multi-objective forestry appear problematic from the perspectives of sustainable development and democratic forest policy, as they effectively mask conflicts and divisions behind an ostensible consensus. The mass media actors should be more aware of these mechanisms of de-politicisation, even if we also found some marks of the return of the political in our analysis.

MLTI-05. IDENTIFYING BRAIN METASTATIC CASES FROM FREE TEXT CLINICAL NARRATIVES WITH REFINEMENT OF SEMANTIC HETEROGENEITY USING MACHINE LEARNING

INTRODUCTION: Brain metastatic disease (BM) is ripe for discovery using computational tools like machine learning (ML) due to disease complexity and multidimensional critical data (imaging, genomics, primary disease, drug exposures)1. Leveraging real-world-evidence’ (RWE) from routine health data to inform clinical management is hindered by fragmented unstructured data and semantic heterogeneity2. Clinical data in EHR and institutional registries are typically free text narratives absent common data elements (CDE). Curating existing data into CDE with machine learning (ML) may inform contemporary approaches (RWE, N-of-1 trials, and precision medicine) that are dependent on large high-quality datasets. Harvesting existing institutional registries may expand demographic representation, confirm benchmarks of established treatments, and provide test environment for prospective ML applications. METHOD: An R-based deep convoluted neural network (DNN) using keras and an API for Tensorflow python was trained on physician narratives of 2000 BM cases and 8000 other CNS conditions labeled by diagnosis spanning 17 years3,4. The ML model was tested with 405 non-labeled narratives to: A) Identify BM from other CNS conditions (i.e. glioma, meningioma, non-tumor). B) Evaluate word embedding using GLoVe5 to standardize abbreviations and misspellings by assigning terms to CDE by training the model to plot “mets”, “metastases” and “spine” with the 20 most similar contextual words. RESULTS: DNN architecture achieved 97% accuracy in distinguishing BM (n=178) for others (n=227). “Mets” and “metastasis” have a connected contextual network suggesting shared meaning, whereas spine did not share a network. CONCLUSIONS: ML can identify BM cases in free-text registries which can serve as a quality control measure and aid data aggregation. Standardizing shorthand terminology to CDE with DNN trained in word embedding can possibly address semantic heterogeneity and facilitate data automation. Solutions are needed to compile and automate quality BM data across institutions to achieve the volume and complexity required for contemporary analysis using ML.

Resignation, violence and filing complaint: social representations of the male aggressor from the perspective of the female victim of aggression.

The scope of this study is to analyze the social representations of the male aggressor from the perspective of the female victim of aggression. It is a qualitative and representational study conducted, using free narrative as the data-gathering tool, with twenty women who were under the protection of the Reference Center in Natal in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. ALCESTE 2010 software was used to analyze the textual data. Three thematic categories were developed for the purpose: i) The imprisonment of women; ii) Violence and its significance; iii) Breaking the cycle of violence. From the perspective of the female victim of aggression, the social representations of the behavior of the male aggressor are entrenched in the social role of males in the family and in society. In this way, it represents a model of dominant masculinity that in turn reinforces family structures and the repetition of roles.

Abstract TP296: Predicting Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale Components in Emergency Medical Services Patient Care Reports Using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning

Introduction: Prehospital stroke data is often not included in hospital records and quality improvement registries. However, manual data abstraction from free-text emergency medical services (EMS) patient care records is time-intensive and often incomplete. We sought to test the accuracy of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) analysis in identifying the Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale (CPSS) components - arm drift, facial droop, and slurred speech - in EMS free text patient care report narratives. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of de-identified records of EMS-suspected stroke patients in Chicago between January 2013 and December 2016. Using Gensim and Spacy, Python packages for NLP, we pre-processed and transformed the free text by extracting “bag of words,” “term frequency inverse document frequency,” “principal component,” and “mean embedding vectors” features and then trained ML models to predict whether each CPSS component documented by paramedics using a drop-down list was described in the free text. Several ML algorithms were tested (Logistic Regression, Random Forests, XGBoost, and Stacking) to calculate the area under the curve and accuracy for each model. To avoid overfitting and to test the generalizability of the results, we performed 10-fold cross-validation by cyclically dividing the dataset, training on 9 parts and testing on 1. Results: 6,204 data points were obtained for arm drift (3,195 negatives and 3,009 positives), 7,487 data points for facial droop (3,851 negatives and 3,636 positives), and 6,874 data points for slurred speech (2,498 negatives and 4,376 positives). Stacking using Random Forests provided the best results for each CPSS component (Table). Conclusion: NLP and ML performed very well in predicting documented CPSS scores from free text in EMS patient care records. Future studies may investigate the applications of NLP and ML in assisting data abstraction from EMS patient care records.

Análisis del proceso de divorcio como transición de salud según la teoría de las transiciones de Alaf Meleis

The general goal of this study is to analyze the transitions produced during a divorce process using the Theory of transitions of Alaf Ibraim Meleis. Our specific goals are two:1) Identify the elements that characterize the experience of the divorce transition, and 2) examine if this experience is healthy for the person or not. A qualitative phenomenological case study was conducted in a person who was experiencing a divorce process. To collect the data, a conversation was conducted in a climate of trust that began with the question: Are you living through a period of changes?. Free narration and the expression of concerns and feelings were favored. Data processing was done through content analysis of the transcribed conversation, identifying the nature, conditions and indicators of the divorce transition. It is suggested that nursing professionals can and should perform interventions aimed at providing security, self-esteem and confidence to the person experiencing a divorce process. This research concludes that the theory of transitions offers a holistic perspective of the persons experiencing a transition in their lives. It is proposed that the Theory guides the nurse to promote healthy responses to the transition in people.

A comparison of different investigative interviewing techniques in generating differential recall enhancement and detecting deception

AbstractThis study compared the Stepwise Interview, Cognitive Interview, and Reality Interview in detecting deception with inmates. The dependent measures were the amount of unique details provided during the free narrative and mnemonics and the number of words provided during the free narrative and mnemonics of each interview. The Stepwise Interview generated 58.3% accuracy, the Cognitive Interview generated 70.0% accuracy, and the Reality Interview generated 93.3% accuracy. The different tasks of these interviews increased the differences between honest and deceptive statements and therefore, increased the accuracy in detection of deception. Differential recall enhancement is used to explain the findings.

Idea density in Japanese for the early detection of dementia based on narrative speech.

BackgroundIdea density (ID), a natural language processing–based index, was developed to aid in the detection of dementia through the analysis of English narratives. However, it has not been applied to non-English languages due to the difficulties in translating grammatical concepts. In this study, we defined rules to count ideas in Japanese narratives based on a previous study and proposed a novel method to estimate ID in Japanese text using machine translation.MaterialsThe study participants comprised 42 Japanese patients with dementia aged 69–98 years (mean: 84.95 years). We collected free narratives from the participants to build a speech corpus. The narratives of the patients were translated into English using three machine translation systems: Google Translate, Bing Translator, and Excite Translator. The ID in the translated text was then calculated using the Dependency-based Propositional ID (DEPID), an English ID scoring tool.ResultsThe maximum correlation coefficient between ID calculated using DEPID-R-ADD (a modified DEPID method to calculate ID after removing vague sentences) and the Mini-Mental State Examination score was 0.473, indicating a moderate correlation.DiscussionThe results demonstrate the feasibility of machine translation-based ID measurement. We believe that the basic concept of this translation approach can be applied to other non-English languages.

First Lessons from Donald Trump’s Trade Undiplomacy

“The return of isolationism”, “the demise of multilateralism”, “the end of globalization”… these alarmist headlines have dominated analyses of America’s place in the world since the election of Donald Trump. This applies to the trade policy sphere, where Donald Trump’s nationalist and protectionist discourse has strongly departed from the dominant free trade narrative of his predecessors. Yet, if America’s retreat from multilateral and regional institutions is clear in many policy spheres – c...

Rapport: Little effect on children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ statement quantity, accuracy, and suggestibility

Rapport building is widely recommended in eyewitness interview situations and is a critical component in some interview protocols. However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of rapport building on memory performance is scant. The current experiment examined the effects of different levels of rapport (none, minimal, extensive) on children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ memory (N = 229). Participants viewed a video of a mock theft and received one of three possible rapport manipulations. They then provided a free narrative of what they had seen, followed by 18 cued (suggestive and nonsuggestive) questions. In general, we found limited evidence of positive effects of rapport building on statement quantity and accuracy across age groups. Adolescents did profit more from extensive rapport building compared to no rapport. In line with the idea of a linear development of memory measures with age, adolescents generally fell in-between the other two age groups across different memory measures. The current study encourages systematic experimental research on the effect of rapport building on eyewitness memory.

Statistics students’ identification of inferential model elements within contexts of their own invention

Statistical thinking partially depends upon an iterative process by which essential features of a problem setting are identified and mapped onto an abstract model or archetype, and then translated back into the context of the original problem setting (Wild and Pfannkuch 1999). Assessment in introductory statistics often relies on tasks that present students with data in context and expects them to choose and describe an appropriate model. This study explores post-secondary student responses to an alternative task that prompts students to clearly identify a sample, population, statistic, and parameter using a context of their own invention. The data include free text narrative responses of a random sample of 500 students from a sample of more than 1600 introductory statistics students. Results suggest that students' responses often portrayed sample and population accurately. Portrayals of statistic and parameter were less reliable and were associated with descriptions of a wide variety of other concepts. Responses frequently attributed a variable of some kind to the statistic, or a study design detail to the parameter. Implications for instruction and research are discussed, including a call for emphasis on a modeling paradigm in introductory statistics.

Clinical Nutrition

Background Patients compare and discuss their treatment regimens with other patients to obtain informal peer support. (1) A social comparison model (2) suggests these behaviours involve making comparisons to other patient's dietary behaviours to obtain feedback on the success of their own dietary behaviours. The result of this comparison can either enhance or lower self-esteem, depending on how the person perceives their situation. A self-enhancement comparison i.e. discounting the other person's behaviour helps maintain positive self-esteem through positive self-talk. A negative comparison will make them feel inferior to the person they have compared themselves too. Social comparison has been studied in obesity and eating disorders.(3) But little exists in renal. It is important to understand how people deal with social interactions around diet as inappropriate renal peer support and dietary advice giving may be detrimental to dietary adherence. Therefore it is important that patients can maintain self-esteem around following their own dietary advice. The aim of this study was to explore informal peer support experiences on self-management of individual dietary recommendations in chronic kidney disease. Methods Qualitative semi-structured interviews using a free response narrative approach were undertaken with patients with end-stage renal failure on heamodialysis. An interview topic guide, informed by current literature, was used to guide the data collection. Interview questions covered experiences of informal peer support and the affect these had on participants own behaviour around following renal dietary advice. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and underwent interpretative phenomenological analysis (4) within the framework of social comparison theory.(2) Internal peer review, member checking and reflexivity were under taken to increase rigour. UHCW NHS Trust gave ethical approval. Results 12 caucasian adults took part (6 male, 6 female). Themes represented social comparison between patients within the dialysis unit. Patients gradually entered the social more of the “renal family” (Participant 3) when starting hemodialysis. Within this social more; self-enhancement comparisons protected the self by discounting peers incongruent “unsafe” (P6) dietary advice, describing patients who were non-compliant to low potassium advice as being “on rocky ground” (P4). This helped maintain positive self-esteem by “feeling good about my own choices” (P10), identity around food, and food literacy. Peers who undertook positive self-talk were more likely to offer appropriate support to others. These coping strategies and “decent” (P1) peer support maintained defense against well-meant informal peer support by lessening the comparison to “those patients who don't know what they're doing with their diet” (P16). Discussion Positive upwards comparisons helped patients make dietary changes and self-manage their diet as reported in self-restrained eaters. (4) This led to high levels of self-efficacy to cope with renal restrictions and maintained patients’ food literacy. These individuals were more likely to offer appropriate support to others. Downward comparison resulted in individuals feeling their self-efficacy was threatened by negative influences of peers. Limitations to this study include that self-efficacy was not measured, but implied through in-depth descriptions. Conclusion The findings suggest that a formal peer support programme should be explored for renal dietetics. A formal peer support programme may help lessen the anxiety around informal and inappropriate nutritional peer support.